January Gardening Guide

While other gardening zones may be sleeping under a layer of snow, Zone 10 Southern California gardeners are fortunate enough to be able to garden year round.

January is a nice month to be out there in the winter sun, tending and dreaming about spring and summer crops while harvesting lettuce, radishes, carrots and other cool seasons vegetables planted in the fall.

Fall and Winter gardening are the best times for beginner gardeners to start since they don’t have to worry as much about pests and heat. It’s a little more forgiving!

Here are a few of the tasks I’m hoping to get to this month in my home garden:

• Prune deciduous fruit trees - I better hurry since my nectarine already started blooming this week!

• Prune roses: unless the rose had an unproductive year, I don’t prune back hard. I take it down by 1/3 and remove any criss crossing branches to help open up the plant to be more vase-like.

• Feed citrus if you are coastal (wait until March if you are more inland). I recommend one feeding per month from January to June.

• Bare-root planting: Roses, deciduous fruit trees, strawberries, cane berry bushes, etc.. If you are ordering now, make sure the plant has the right chill hours for your zone. My nectarine and peach trees are “low-chill varieties”, meaning they will still fruit with 200 chill hours or less. You can look up your counties cumulative hours here.

• Plant wildflower seeds like poppies, lupines, clarkia, etc - They will still sprout and grow although they are better planted in November. We haven’t had much or any rain, so it’s okay to start now, but water the planted area daily to keep moist. Theodore Payne Foundation has a great guide here.

• January is still a good time to plant California native plants in the ground or even in pots. Water weekly to help supplement moisture until we get some winter rains!

• Clean up work area - potting shed, table, etc. It’s time to clear off the spider webs and give everything a once over. Can I fix any broken tools? Sharpen anything? I’m taking inventory for the future busy spring ahead, plus I’m more likely to spend time at my potting bench if it’s tidy.

• Order seeds! I’m still processing seeds I saved from my garden last year - tomato, sunflower, poppy, zinnias, sweet peas, and a few others. I just found out about Huntington Beach Library seed sharing program. I can’t wait to visit and see what they have available for me to try!

• If you only do one thing in the garden this month, plant lettuce! Plant it in the ground, raised bed, or a little pot that is at least 6” but ideally 1’ deep and enjoy lettuce all winter and spring! Okay to start with seeds or little transplants